Translator
Translators turn written text into another language, carrying the meaning, tone and register across so the reader sees only the finished version.
- Median salary
- $109,900
3.8%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 1,700
0.0%vs last year
- Projected growth
- +21.2%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- 5 out of 10
- Average hours
- 41/wk
+1h vs all jobs
- Shortage status
- Not in shortage
national
- Translators work on documents that range from legal contracts and technical manuals to marketing copy and government correspondence, moving them from a source language into a target language.
- Most are freelance or on contract for translation agencies, publishers, government departments or corporate clients, and many specialise in one field, such as law, medicine or technical writing, where the terminology is dense and mistakes carry consequences.
- The job is often confused with interpreting: interpreters work with spoken language in real time, while translators work from written text and can research, revise and check before they deliver.
How much do translators earn?
The median full-time salary for a translator is $109,900 per annum, before tax, up $22,700 since 2018.
Pay varies more by how you work than by the role itself. In-house translators earn a salary set by an enterprise agreement or the employer's own band, while freelancers are usually paid per word or per project, so a specialist field or a less common language pair can command more per job but also brings quieter months. NAATI certification in the language pair, and the fields where clients insist on it, tends to sit behind the higher rates.
What does a translator do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Translating a document on a subject you may know little about, from a lease agreement one week to product packaging the next
- Researching terminology and recording it in a glossary so a long document uses the same term the same way throughout
- Working inside translation software that stores approved terms and sentences, which keeps long jobs consistent and repeated content quicker to handle
- Rereading a draft line by line against the source to catch the places where the meaning slipped
- Asking a client to clarify a passage that could be read two ways before the wording is locked in
What skills do translators need?
Employers look for content creation and writing, backed by CAT software (SDL Trados, MemoQ) fluency and strong written communication.
Specialist skills
- Content creation and writing
Software and tools
- CAT software (SDL Trados, MemoQ)
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Terminology management databases
- Project management software (Asana, Monday.com)
- Grammarly or similar editing tools
General skills
- Written communication
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving
- Time and deadline management
- Client relationships and advisory
Is the job growing?
About 1,700 people work as translators in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 21.2% over the decade to 2035. That's very strong growth. Few roles in Australia are expanding this fast, and it points to solid demand for years to come.
How do you become a translator?
Here's the path most translators take, step by step.
- 1Build genuine fluency in two languages
Translation needs near-native reading and writing in both, not conversational ability. A bachelor degree in languages, translation or a related field is the usual starting point, and 49% of the people working as translators hold a postgraduate qualification.
- 2Get certified through NAATI
The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters tests translators by language and direction. Certification is what government departments, courts and many agencies ask for before they will send work your way.
- 3Choose a specialisation
Legal, medical, technical and government work each carry their own terminology and expectations, and a niche is usually what turns occasional jobs into a steady client list.
- 4Start with an agency or an in-house role
Agencies provide volume, feedback and a client base while you build speed, and in-house roles at a hospital, law firm or government body come with a salary and someone senior to check your work.
- 5Move into freelance practice once you have a track record
Registration with the ATO, insurance, invoicing and a client list all take time to set up, and most translators make the move after a few years of paid experience.
Ready to apply as a translator?
Whether you're working toward becoming a translator or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a translator move to?
Moving into English Language Teacher typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $13,100 a year more on average.
- InterpreterRecorded move$109,900same pay
- English Language TeacherSuggested move$123,000+$13,100
- Publishing EditorSuggested move$65,000−$44,900
Thick lines are moves people were recorded making in Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility (income tax records, 2011-12 to 2020-21). Thin lines are moves we suggest from skill overlap and entry requirements.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
English Language Teacher Translators bring language expertise to English teaching, but a teaching qualification is required, so this move needs requalifying. | +$13,100 | 4% | requalify |
Interpreter Translators bring written precision and bilingual fluency to interpreting, though spoken accreditation is needed, so this move requires reskilling.Known move | +$0 | 44% | reskill |
Publishing Editor Translators bring close reading and text accuracy to editing, and a short course covers publishing workflows. | −$44,900 | 58% | short course |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a translator?
The typical translator is 49 years old; 65% are women, 35% work full-time, and full-timers average 41 hours a week.
- 49
- Median age
- 65%
- Female share
- 35%
- Full-time
- +1h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a translator?
Translation is quiet, focused work with long stretches alone at a desk, followed by deadlines that bunch up when several clients deliver in the same week. Freelancers carry the extra pressure of finding the next job while finishing the current one, and income can swing from month to month. It suits people who like reading closely, enjoy working out how another industry talks, and are comfortable making a judgement call on wording without someone down the corridor to check with.
What people like
- Getting inside a new subject. Each specialist client teaches you how an industry actually talks, from insurance policy wording to clinical trial reports, and that knowledge carries into the next job.
- Quiet, uninterrupted working days. Much of the week is reading and writing with no meetings, which suits people who would rather solve a wording problem than sit through a briefing.
- Setting your own hours. Freelance translators usually choose when they work, within the limits of the deadlines they have accepted, which makes the job easier to fit around other commitments.
- A text that reads as though it was written in the target language. There is a clear measure of success, and it is visible on the page: the reader cannot tell the text was translated, and the client comes back.
What people find hard
- Income that arrives unevenly. Freelance work comes in waves, so a quiet fortnight can be followed by a week where three clients all want delivery at once.
- Paid by the word rather than the hour. A difficult passage can take several times as long as an easy one for the same fee, so unpaid research and revision quietly eat into what a job actually pays.
- Deadlines that assume no checking. Clients sometimes expect a long technical document back the same day, which is only possible by cutting the review that makes a translation reliable.
- Machine drafts that still need fixing. When a client runs text through machine translation first, the job becomes correcting someone else's output, which pays less and can take longer than translating from scratch.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ translators?
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services employs the largest share of translators, followed by Health Care and Social Assistance.
Top employing industries
- 1Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
- 2Health Care and Social Assistance
- 3Public Administration and Safety
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Postgraduate | 48.7% | |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor degree | 33.6% | |
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 7.6% | |
| Year 12 or below | 5.7% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 2.3% |
Will AI replace translators?
Moderate exposure. Not replaced, but changed. AI is taking on some tasks and the rest of the job shifts around them.
Translation sits in the middle. Routine, high-volume text is now largely machine generated and then corrected by a person, and post-editing has become a normal part of the week. What keeps the exposure from going further is certification and liability: courts, hospitals and government bodies need a named translator whose work they can rely on, and no tool decides whether a headline will land in another market.
How a typical week splits
- Post-editing machine translation drafts30% of the week
Product listings, internal documents and website copy often arrive already machine translated, so the job is correcting and rewriting rather than starting from a blank page.
- Terminology research and glossary upkeep25% of the week
Software can suggest the standard term for a subject area, but confirming which one the client's industry actually uses still takes reading and a decision.
- Translating regulated or specialist text30% of the week
Contracts, clinical reports and court documents are accepted only with a NAATI-certified translation, and the accuracy here carries legal consequences.
- Talking through the brief with clients15% of the week
How formal or idiomatic a text should be, and which words to avoid in a particular market, comes out of a conversation that a machine cannot hold.
How we work this out
We break each job into its main tasks, estimate the share of a typical week each one takes, and judge how far current AI and automation tools reach into it. The score out of 10 starts from the job's overall rating (low is 1 to 3, moderate 4 to 6, high 7 to 10) and the task split places it within that range. Source: Career Tips analysis of each role's main tasks.
Common questions about becoming a translator
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much do translators earn?
Full-time translators earn a median of $109,900 per year before tax. Freelancers are usually paid per word or per project, so their income depends on their rates, how many hours they can bill and how steady the work is.
How do you become a translator?
You need near-native fluency in two languages and, for most paid work in Australia, certification through NAATI. A degree in translation or languages helps, and specialising in a field such as law or medicine is what makes the work steady rather than occasional.
Are translators in demand?
Translators are currently not in shortage. Employment is projected to grow 21.2% over the decade to 2035, and with about 1,700 people in the role the number of new jobs each year is small. Certification and a specialisation matter more than the overall figure when you are looking for work.
Will AI replace translators?
Machine translation now handles routine, high-volume text well, and post-editing those drafts has become a standard part of the job. What it does not do reliably is legal, medical or certified translation, where accuracy carries liability, or the cultural judgement that decides whether a marketing text lands in another market.
What other jobs could a translator move into?
Interpreting uses the same bilingual fluency and written precision, with median pay about the same, though it needs separate NAATI accreditation for spoken work. Publishing editing pays $44,900 less and draws on the same close reading, while teaching English pays $13,100 more and requires a teaching qualification. Many experienced translators stay in the field and build their own practice or agency instead, which is often where earnings grow.
Do you need a degree to work as a translator?
Not strictly, because NAATI certification is the credential clients ask for, though 34% of people in the role hold a bachelor degree and 49% hold a postgraduate qualification. Employers and agencies generally weigh a certified language pair and a tested sample above the particular degree.
Related roles
Not sure this is you? Take the career quiz and get a ranked shortlist of roles that fit how you like to work.
Career advice
- How to change careers, and which moves are realisticData on 1,573 career moves across 350 Australian occupations shows 63.3% need no more than a short course, though skill overlap alone won't tell you which ones. Six worked examples, and how to check your own move.
- Skills to put on your resume (with skills finder)A resume skills section built for the job you're applying for. Search your occupation to see the specialist skills, tools and general skills it calls for, with worked examples and what to write if you have no work history yet.
- How to prepare for a job interviewWhat to work through before a job interview: a prep sheet built from the job ad, the stories that cover most questions, and the questions an interviewer can't lawfully ask in Australia.